Healty Teen Weight Loss Plan

     Changes

Nowadays, teens are also prone to being obese. Obesity is a sickness that strikes anyone at any age. If left untreated, obesity can cause serious complications like diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Apart from that, being obese can also cause mental and emotional problems for teens.

Media pressure

Anorexia and bulimia are common eating disorders that strike teens, especially girls. Anorexia and bulimia are usually results of the pressure of being thin. Several external pressures are present in today's society that could damage a child.

Media is constantly portraying thin women in television as beautiful, hence teens aspire to be like them. Because of this, parental supervision is always essential when it comes to teen weight loss.

Healthy advice

As teens, before you consider going to a teen weight loss plan or regime, it is always important to let your parents in on your plan. Also, if you are obese and want to lose weight, you have to consult your doctor and ask for expert advice. Do not be easily fooled by diet methods and products. Some of them can have serious side effects so do not be easily led away.

Opposite effect

Surprisingly, a very low calorie diet usually results in weight gain rather than weight loss. Yes, you will lose weight after a while, but the body starts to slow down in order to conserve calories. This is a natural defense mechanism designed to overcome the effects of a food shortage. As a result, weight loss slows down.

Starvation has serious effects including tiredness and lack of energy. Later on, a combination of hunger, cravings and low mood may trigger an episode of binge eating.

Loss of muscle

Rapid and drastic weight loss can also result in muscle loss. According to research, up to 50% of the the weight lost is not fat at all, but lean tissue. In other words, the body starts burning up its own muscles. One reason for this, is that fat tissue requires fewer calories to maintain than muscle tissue, so the body retains more fat and burns more muscle.

Health effects of starvation

Normally, the average 11 year old requires a minimum of 1800 calories. This rises with age and gender to about 2700 calories for 18 year old teenage boys.

The reason that adolescents and teenagers need these calories is to satisfy the nutritional demands of the intense development and growth they experience during this period. A very low calorie diet can lead to serious nutritional deficiencies, involving extreme tiredness, bone weakness, skin and hair problems, as well as hormonal problems and worse.

Fad diets are also a no-no

Teens may also resort to using fad diets to help them lose weight fast. Diet pills, patches, and other products fall under the category of fad diets. Although these products may work for a short while, they have no long term effects for you. In the end, it can actually result in you doubling your weight from the normal.

A typical fad diet (eg. cabbage soup diet, grapefruit diet) is a low calorie eating plan with some type of gimmick attached. When a product or program claims to help you lose weight quick and easy, these are usually fad diets.

There is no truth in any of these fad-diet assertions. The only reason they cause some teens to lose weight is because they are very low in calories. And as we have already seen, low calorie diet plans are very unhealthy and do not lead to long term weight reduction. If you are a teenager who needs to lose weight, please do not waste your time following one of these low energy diets.

Tips on losing weight for teens

An effective teen weight loss plan consists of a balanced diet and regular exercise. Sadly, many teens do not believe and adopt this effective teen weight loss plan. Instead, they go for the "instant solutions" to their weight concerns.

If you are dead serious about adopting a healthy teen weight loss plan, talk to both your parents and doctor so you will be guided accordingly. Most doctors will put you in contact with a qualified dietitian who can give you a healthy teen weight loss plan that consists of a calorie-controlled eating plan, plus expert advice on how to increase your exercise level.

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